Cleaning Your Contact Lenses

Research performed by Bausch & Lomb in August determined that many adults regularly use dangerous substances in place of lens solution to keep their lenses moist. Everything from baby oil, to lemonade to butter was reportedly used as a substitute to actual contact lens solution by one eighth of the two thousand adults that responded in the survey conducted in the UK.

Even more of those queried indicated that they use saliva when inserting their contacts. Knowing that the mouth of the average adult is known to house hundreds of different types of bacteria, this is clearly not a good idea. Moreover, far too many individuals assume that water from a tap or bottle is a suitable alternative for lens solution, but even those may contain parasites that can damage the eye and have been associated with Acanthamoeba keratitis, a sight-threatening corneal infection. Even moreso, if water enters your eyes when swimming or bathing while your lenses are in, it's advised to take out your contacts as quickly as you can and thoroughly rinse them so no parasites can get stuck to the surface of your eye.

The only liquid that should be used to wash, cleanse, moisten or soak your lenses is approved contact solution. It's dangerous to keep your contacts in water! Storing contacts in water isn't effective in disinfecting them and harmful microorganisms can gather on your contacts within minutes and enter your eyes with the contacts. Further, contact solution is made to match the saltiness of the tear film in your eyes and conversely water can cause a reaction which makes your contacts change shape or stick causing discomfort and blurred vision.

If you know that you do not have the means to properly disinfect your lenses, definitely consider using daily disposable lenses as opposed to lenses that you reuse. It's important to take age, way of life and level of responsibility into consideration when deciding which contacts are most suitable for the members of your family.

Only individuals that can understand the proper way to care for contact lenses and the importance of doing so should wear contacts, especially reusable brands. Failure to do so can result in permanent damage to the eyes or even total vision loss.